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30 miles northwest of Calgary, Alberta

Posted at 7:15 pm, October 23rd, 2002

Alberta decided to do an impersonation of the Yukon Territory last night, and as a result I woke up with a layer of ice on both the outside and inside of the car. After thawing out I headed to the trails around Lake Louise and spent the next six hours roaming — I finally ended up at the Plain of the Six Glaciers, which is a spot high up in the mountains that overlooks the lake and (surprise!) six glaciers.

After leaving Lake Louise I decided to take a secondary road towards Calgary, and right at the park border encountered twenty bighorn sheep on the road — they come down to lick it for minerals or salts or something. None of these animals had any fear whatsoever, and I watched a few of them from my car at less than two feet distance. Watching sheep from a park road stretches the bounds of what could be considered a “wildlife encounter”, but it was nevertheless amazing to get to see these animals so close up. Their eyes are a deep amber color, and if the eyes really are windows to the soul then these animals have extraordinarily peaceful souls.